[Table of Contents] [Chapter 8]
Biological warfare (BW) is the use of disease to harm or kill an adversary’s military forces, population, food or livestock. Living organic germs, like anthrax, are a major example of biological weapons. Another is byproducts of organisms, known as toxins. An example is botulism. Biological agents are much deadlier, pound for pound, than chemical agents. It has been estimated that 10 grams of anthrax could kill as many people as a ton of the nerve agent Sarin.
Lt Col Terry Mayer traces the history of biological warfare, including its use during World War II by Japanese forces in China. During early phases of the Cold War the United States, as a potential retaliatory measure against the USSR, developed a BW program. However, in 1969 President Nixon terminated the program and announced US unilateral disarmament of offensive BW weapons. A worldwide Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) followed, and among the 118 signers are the United States, Russia, and Iraq. However, there is evidence that Moscow continued to manufacture anthrax at least into 1992. Iraq now admits that it, too, had a BW program until 1991.
The BW problem was dramatically highlighted during Desert Storm when Iraq was discovered not only to have a nuclear weapons program, but also an elaborate chemical and biological warfare effort. US government analysts are skeptical about whether or not Iraq actually destroyed its biological warfare agents and equipment in 1991 as they claim. Some believe that Baghdad may still have a large BW program intact. Unclassified information from the Defense Nuclear Agency documents indicate that numerous rogue states— those that support state sponsored terrorism like Iran, Iraq, Libya, and North Korea—have or are pursuing BW programs.
Colonel Mayer indicates that BW agents of other states are very difficult, if not impossible, for allied intelligence services to detect in research, production, transit, or employment phases. In addition to detection shortfalls, Mayer’s essay questions whether the United States is unable to effectively protect its military forces (medically and nonmedically) from BW weapons, conduct an effective preemptive counteroffensive strike against enemy BW facilities, or protect the civilian population against a terrorist BW attack.
Robert Kadlec, M.D., (Lt Col, USAF) shows that the ongoing revolution in biotechnology has also made possible medical products readily transferable to biological warfare applications. Some vaccines are available, but do not have wide distribution. He contends that the proliferation of BW weapons provides less-developed countries capabilities that could be as lethal and devastating as nuclear weapons. BW weapons are inexpensive, easy to produce, can be disguised as natural events (for example as agricultural sprayers), are hard to detect or preempt, and are hard to defend against once employed.
Dr Kadlec analyzes the current BW threat and cites Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) findings which emphasize how certain unstable states have governments seeking WMD, including BW. The OTA analysis suggests that BW is the cheapest and most easily produced of all the weapons of mass destruction. Indeed some third world regimes see BW as a “potential equalizer” to offset Western conventional or nuclear forces.
In his essay on biological warfare as a possible means of attacking an adversary’s agricultural base, Dr Kadlec shows how “the existence of natural occurring or endemic agricultural pests or diseases and outbreaks permits an adversary to use BW with plausible denial.” Dr Kadlec shows instances of how BW could be used in attacks on livestock and plants including anthrax, glanders, rinderpest, and wheat rust.
He notes instances of naturally occurring infestations of agriculture. For example, the whitefly infestations of California crops in 1981 and 1991 caused $500 million worth of damage. The Russian wheat aphid cost the United States $600 million. Similarly, in other cases the Mediterranean fruit fly caused $900 million in damage and lost revenues to American crops. To guard against such pests, over $7 billion is spent every year on pesticides.
Dr Kadlec then provides a series of illustrative and hypothetical scenarios of how biological warfare could be waged against certain food suppliers: spraying a corn seed blight over the Midwestern United States from commercial airliners to force massive corn imports; deliberately spreading a rapidly breeding grape louse across California wine country; deliberately sabotaging Pakistan’s cotton crop with insects; etc. Thus, while not lethal attacks on human beings, such BW attacks against a country’s food supplies or crops could be very damaging. Such BW attacks against a competitor’s economic assets could open an unfortunate new chapter in the history of economic warfare. ž
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the US Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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